Sweet Cilantro and Onion Pickles

An old friend of mine died last week. You may have known him yourself…Andy Griffith.

I grew up in the country, where believe it or not, in the 1980s, we had but 4 total TV stations. ABC, NBC, and CBS…well, two NBCs. One didn’t come in very well though. Everyday after my cousin and I jumped off the bus, we’d make a beeline for the couch, where my grandmother would bring us our dinner – potato soup or macaroni without cheese most days – and tune in to her old box TV.

Andy Griffith came on at 430.

I’ve likely seen every episode. I grew up learning lessons from Andy, laughing at Barney, and patting my foot to the music of the Darlins.

There are worse ways to grow up, I guess.

One of my favorite episodes was called The Pickle Story. Poor Aunt Bea. Her pickles, for lack of a better word – sucked. They tasted like kerosene, but Andy and Barney couldn’t bear to hurt her feelings… So they ate jar after jar of them, just to keep her from entering them into the County Fair.

Their faces? Priceless.

They’d have had nothing to worry about if she’d just been using THIS recipe.

Sweet Cilantro & Onion Pickles. That’s a Pickle…No Mistake About It.

Our garden has graciously produced a bunch of great cucumbers this year, and as soon as I saw the lot of them, I knew just what I wanted. As I am not a dill fan, we came up with this recipe a couple of years ago, and I honestly can NOT get enough of them. In fact, I had to forcefully have myself removed from the jar while in the process of photographing them.

It wasn’t easy.

If you like cilantro, and bread and butter pickles, you’ll adore this recipe. I hope you’ll try it!

Quick Cilantro and Onion Refrigerator Pickles

6 cups -sliced cucumbers (chips)

1 1/2 cups- Fresh Chopped cilantro

1 cup- chopped green onions

1 cup- white vinegar

2 cups- sugar

2 Tbsp- Kosher salt

1 Tbsp- celery seeds

1 Tbsp- Mustard seeds

1 Tbsp- Turmeric

Chop the onions, cucumbers and cilantro, and place in a large bowl. Set aside.

Place all ingredients except the cucumbers, onion and cilantro in a sauce pan, stir and bring it to a boil. Let this boil for roughly two minutes. While cooking, stuff the canning jars with the cucumber mix, packing the jars tightly.

Ladle the hot pickling liquid into the packed jars. Top the jars with lids, and allow to cool in the refrigerator. Pickles are ready to eat after 6-8 hours. Note: Save the juice from the jars after eating the pickles, as you can simply add more cucumbers to the jar and have more pickles in no time!